Concerning Noah's Work as a Planter

We have said in the former book all that the occasion called for regarding the husbandman’s art in general. In this book we shall give such an account as we can of the art of a vine-dresser in particular. For Moses introduces the righteous man not as a husbandman only, but specially as a vine-dresser; his words are: “Noah began to be a husbandman tilling the ground, and he planted a vineyard” (Gen. 9:20).

It is incumbent on one, who is going to discourse on the work of planters and husbandmen as carried on in this or that place, to begin by marking well the plants set in the universe, those most perfect of all plants, and their great Planter and Overseer. It is the Lord of all things that is the greatest of planters and most perfect Master of His art. It is this World that is a plant containing in itself the particular plants all at once in their myriads, like shoots springing from a single root.